Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Charter school TDRs are now online at the NYP

UPDATED: 8:30PM

We all know this stuff is crap for charter school teachers too. And this anonymous email does take aim at our of our favorite targets.

Sixty Minutes did a feature on Zeke Vandehoek who is the 125K a year maven for paying teachers. Where's the follow-up? In fact I don't necessarily believe TEP is a bad school or any worse than many other schools and in fact may be better. His results may be a sign he is not creaming and in fact playing an honest game. What Vandehoek is discovering is that unless he creams he will be branded a failure no matter what he pays the teachers. He is also a hero of sorts in the movie American Teacher which I've written about - a movie that claims all it takes is paying teachers more money -- with the usual caveat that teachers have to be accountable -- code for measure them, evaluate them to death and place the blame on them when things don't go right but when they do be sure to credit the school or district leadership.

Fascinating little insight: TEP charter school, headed by that publicity hound Zeke Vandehoek who bragged about how he would get great teachers w/ higher pay and that class sizes didn’t matter at http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/03/zeke-vanderhoek-relentless-self.html

Has two teachers listed, both below average.


One of the TEP teachers who is featured in the movie American Teacher got an 18.



The eight winning candidates, he said, have some common traits, like a high “engagement factor,” as measured by the portion of a given time frame during which students seem so focused that they almost forget they are in class. They were expert at redirecting potential troublemakers, a crucial skill for middle school teachers. And they possessed a contagious enthusiasm — which Rhena Jasey, 30, Harvard Class of 2001, who has been teaching at a school in Maplewood, N.J., conveyed by introducing a math lesson with, “Oh, this is the fun part because I looooooove math!” Says Mr. Vanderhoek: “You couldn’t help but get excited.” Hired.
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March 10 - STATE OF THE UNION PART 2: TIME TO FIGHT BACK ---- See Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

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